The present invention relates to an ankle brace for the prevention of lateral ankle sprains.
Many athletes are injured for days and weeks by ankle sprains. Some individuals are also susceptible to ankle sprains, especially during strenuous activities such as running. Many braces have been proposed to prevent ankle sprains, but none have proven satisfactory.
There are two types of ankle sprains--medial or inside ankle sprains, and lateral or outside ankle sprains. Approximately 90% of all ankle sprains are lateral sprains. Lateral sprains are a result of inversion movement of the foot with such force that the anterior talofibular ligament and/or the calcaneofibular ligament are sprained.
The most effective means of ankle support and the most widely used method in athletics, is the wrapping of the ankle with supportive adhesive tape strapping. Wrapping of the ankles is routinely performed in athletics by coaches, trainers, and team physicians. Such a procedure is expensive in that the tape itself is expensive and not reusable, and because of the time it takes the trained personnel to apply the strapping.
A number of reusable ankle supports comprising elasticized members or pluralities of straps have been proposed, but have been found cumbersome, or structurally unacceptable for preventing lateral sprains.